The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO

By Robin S. Sharma

Book Overview

From the bestselling author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

A chance encounter following a near-death experience sends Jack Valentine on a paradigm-shifting quest to understand the true meaning of life and find his most authentic self

Jack Valentine seemed to have it all. He made good money as an ad man and looked good doing it. He had a hot apartment, cool friends, even a slick car--at least until the hectic Monday morning a truck smashed into it, sending the critically injured Jack to the hospital.

Everything happens for a reason, though, and Jack's reason reveals itself in the silver-haired cancer patient who becomes his roommate one evening. The elderly man, Cal, shares his life story--one not dissimilar to Jack's--of material wealth masking a gaping hole within. Cal ultimately found salvation through philosophy ("the love of wisdom"), and now offers to help Jack by prepping the younger man for the Final Questions we all must face: Have I lived wisely? Have I loved well? Have I served greatly?

Presenting Jack with three plane tickets, each accompanied by a map marked with a red X, Cal sends Jack to meet with three great teachers, each of whom will help Jack answer one of the Final Questions--just as they once helped Cal. First, in Rome, Jack will meet "the Saint." Then a haunted beach in Hawaii introduces him to "the Surfer." And finally the grandeur of New York City sets the stage for his last encounter: with "the CEO."

Along the way, Jack will learn to do his interior work, discover that our negative traits offer gateways to higher versions of ourselves, and understand that figuring things out in your head can distract you from the powerful whispers of your heart. Join Jack on his journey and step into the you that you were always meant to be.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1401900593
• ISBN13: 9781401900595
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Hay House LLC
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

A lesson for me?

I enjoyed this book. It is a compilation of helpful and inspirational thoughts and ideas from all the other books and tapes currently marketed. Kind of a "cliffs notes" of self-discovery. The author sets the fictional story in a hospital where an accident victim is recovering. He is met by his father, who he has not seen in decades, and his father gives him some advice and a letter before the father passes away. The letter contains details on three life coaches the son must go meet so he can learn and uncover his true self. The first coach is a priest in Rome. The priest teaches him how to live wisely, using a metaphor of a stained glass window. You see life colored by your perceptions, like looking through a stained glass window you see things colored by the glass. Change your perceptions and life changes. The second coach is the surfer, who teaches him how to love well. He teaches him to stop living in his head and start living in his heart. Live in the moment and enjoy what is happening right now. Everything you do comes from a place of love or a place of fear. Where are your thoughts coming from right now. The third coach is a CEO of a brokerage firm. She teaches him how to serve greatly. Telling him you can get anything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want, and you must conduct yourself with the utmost integrity. The majority of this book I have read or heard in other places. Its not new material, but it is presented in a new way. One part of the book talks about how every meeting with another person is your chance to learn something new. If you keep meeting up with people who are filled with problems or complaints, its because they are being sent to you so you can learn a lesson that you need right now. They will continue to be sent to you, UNTIL you learn these lessons. I guess that makes sense. Maybe this book came my way because it contains a lesson I still need to learn?

the saint the surfer and the ceo

a very good book...quick reading ..good insights... i recommend this book and follow it with the book who will cry when you die...they go hand in hand..

Touching, Moving and Insightful! A Book that teaches you how to be HAPPY!!!

Imagine that you’re a molting animal that has to shed its outer layer when going through a period of change. Or rather, imagine that you are a caterpillar, shedding its cocoon so it can become a beautiful butterfly. Now imagine your soul doing that very same thing, continuously, in order to reveal the new you. That’s the effect that this book will have on its readers. This book forces you to look at everything in your life that irritates you, that stresses you out, that presses your buttons and everything else that you dislike about yourself as "vehicles that carry the lessons you need to learn" and hence empowering you to move on to the next level of self-discovery. Every single paragraph that you will read would bring you to a whole new level of awareness. You would never look at your life the same way again. Its amazing how the knowledge of these 3 main characters of this book (1) The Saint (2) The Surfer and (3) The CEO, can transform your whole new outlook on life. The Saint teaches how to "live wisely", The Surfer teaches how to "love well" and The CEO teaches how to "serve greatly". These 3 main characters are actually life coaches of the protagonist who is called Jack Valentine. Jack is taught by his coaches: • How to be "authentic as a human being". • "Theories on the way the world works as a school for our growth, and how challenges are actually opportunities – if we have the wisdom to seize them." • "The concept of The Integrity Gap and how we betray ourselves when we’re not true to ourselves." • "The stained glass window metaphor and how it applies to the filters through which each one of us see our world." • How to live "in the heart" and "The importance of staying loose to the moments of the world". • How to release "the control that the vast majority of us cling to in order to discover the true treasures that are meant for our lives". • "The importance of making things happen in life" and balancing it off with living "in the mystery of it all, staying open to all possibilities". • "Self-care practices for personal renewal and creating our best selves" • How to translate all these above concepts into our careers and professional lives, highlighting the need to be kind and loving in business. And many more mind baffling gems of wisdom for healing, for overcoming life’s struggles, for success in all its forms and for living a live of true happiness. These coaches do not only propose what things you can do to make it happen, but also how to do them - customizing it to your personal situation. It’s as if you have your own personal, career, leadership and life-legacy coach. I personally could not put the book down and had to go back on previous paragraphs in order to internalize this totally therapeutic experience. To the reviewers who suggested that the plot of the story was too simple, to them I say that the plot of the story is not

Best One Yet

Robin Sharma is growing and evolving, and his latest effort reflects that. "The Saint, the Surfer and the CEO" is a wonderfully told story that everyone will relate to. If you are in need of a little inspiration, a little encouragement, a little hope or a little clarity...read the book. Sharma's storytelling style and his character's dialogue tends to be somewhat corny and maudlin at times, but you know what? The message is so uplifting and enlightening that it is very easy for me to overlook. I highly recommend this.

Amazing - life changing book!!!!!

Everyone should have this book. I have read Robin Sharma's books before, but this, by far is the absolute best - I could not put it down. This is not your regular self-help book but it is a way to make deep transformations in your life. I loved it! Read this extraordinary book!